State-owned train operator SJ continued to bleed heavily in the second quarter. Pandemic restrictions hit hard.
SJ's CEO Monica Lingegård believes it will be difficult to make up for the large losses during the second half of the year.
The booking situation has brightened ahead of the lifting of restrictions this week. But SJ CEO Monica Lingegård finds it difficult to see that there could be a plus on the bottom line of the income statement when 2021 is summed up.
SJ has, despite pandemic restrictions have maintained traffic, although with significantly lower occupancy than usual. During the second quarter, SJ was not allowed to fill its trains to more than 50 percent due to legislation.
”"The trains are half empty and more, and we live on our ticket revenue, so the result is very challenging," says Lingegård.
The operating result was a loss of SEK 415 million, while turnover stood at just under SEK 1.5 billion. This is significantly better than the second quarter of 2020, but it looks significantly tougher when compared to the second quarter of 2019 – when SJ made a profit of SEK 258 million on turnover of SEK 2.2 billion.
The SJ manager is counting with the third quarter becoming significantly stronger, as trains can be filled to 100 percent again from July 15.
”"Ticket sales are going incredibly well. It shows that there is a large and pent-up need for train travel," she says.
According to Lingegård, the desire for train travel shows that many people now choose to vacation in Sweden, which gives an extra boost to train travel.
”"For the whole year, it is difficult to give a forecast. But I see it as relatively challenging and unlikely that we would recover the losses we have generated during the first half of the year," she says. "But we believe in a free autumn, where we can welcome our travelers back," she adds.
How it goes with work commuting and business travel this fall and what will be the "new normal" in 2022-2023 will be crucial for SJ, according to Lingegård.
”"But we see a very clear need for climate-smart travel. More and more companies are choosing to sign agreements with us and are directing their employees to choose the train over the plane. So even if business travel over time does not return to the volumes that were in 2019, we believe that more and more people will choose the train."”
SJ will not take any of its own initiatives to protect travelers against the spread of infection during the pandemic – such as so-called vaccine passports or requirements for negative test results – according to Lingegård.
At the same time, she expects that customer behavior will be affected by the pandemic in terms of distance and attitudes towards the risk of infection.
”"The Swedish people have been through an incredibly challenging pandemic and I think we all relate to our surroundings somewhat differently than before. But SJ only follows the recommendations and directives that come from the Public Health Agency and the government.".
Source: TT
